I think the way "that is funny" put his words was hilarious. Having found such a hilarious post after just 10 minutes of browsing this forum increases my faith in this client.

I'd have to say that the stupidest thing (IMHO) any one computer owner could do is to have a computer WIRED to the net (dsl, cable, whatever) and NOT protect it in any way.

This goes for Linux and Windows boxes alike (and probably macs). Having an unprotected Linux with nothing done to hosts.allow, ipchains etc. is just gambling with your data, that's how simple it is.

Fortunately not much harm can be done through a Windows -box, which should make it less susceptible to hacking attempts. (You can't get root access on a win9x, mostly you can't telnet to it, use it as a mail relay server or anything. Only the owner can be harmed and that is just and fair, because it's ok to be punished for one's stupidity.

Just a small example: I too was stupid once. I installed a Linux -box one evening by ftp directly from a mirror site. I was tired and left it unprotected when I went to bed and in the morning it was hacked.

Another example: I found an exe-file on the net that was supposed to be able to crash IIS, Microsoft's webserver software. I downloaded the file, launched it (virus check enabled) and got a program with one input-field and one ok-button. I put the address of our IIS server into the field and ... it crashed.

So saying it takes a 13-year-old to do it is wildly exaggerated. A five year old could do it. Hacking is often far from the equivalency of being a guru master mind of computer science. Bear that in mind!

Finally, I fully concur with everything "that is funny" said about causing panic in other users by shouting out false information publicly. The person tried to help, credit belongs to him for that, but getting your facts straight before trying to help is always a good idea.

Just my thoughts...

-JJ